From: John Pepper <trissana@aol.com > Date: Tue Aug 20, 2002 9:43
pm Subject: [DL-T] Working the Night Shift
Dalmar
(Dragon clinic, Day 5, shortly after midnight)
/snip from Jeanette's post/
"Where is your dragon infirmary, please? Because that is where
this one is going, and where is its rider??"
{{ Wylith, grab the knotted ends, and lift please, slowly. Not too
far off of the ground, as I'm going to be running alongside, watching to see
that this poor dear is ok till we get there. }}
The grown dragon moved away a bit, and launched as carefully as
she could, then moved to grasp the knots securely in her talons, waiting for
her rider to move in the right direction.
/end snip/
Dalmar knew he should go to bed, but after all the excitement he knew he
couldn't sleep. Anyway, it wasn't as though he had nothing to do - he still
had cleanup work to do from Rover's destructive mouse-hunt through the
infirmary, and he'd have to spend yet more time replacing medicines - some of
them not particularly easy to find - that had been lost when their bottles
had been broken.
He also had a couple of more challenging problems to solve, though, and
he was now sitting at his desk in a side-alcove poring over some notes from
yesterday.
"Patient's name: Nhorit," he read softly. "Age: adult." He *really*
needed to put together a medical profile of the dragons at Telnor and keep a
separate file on each. Names, that was easy...length, wingspan...well, he
supposed he could do measurements on them one by one when they came in to see
him. No point in doing it for the hatchlings because those measurements
would change almost hourly. Age was easy, just ask the rider...but weight,
that was a tough one. Well, he could just categorize them into "fit, fat, or
skinny." Color...interesting but irrelevant, he decided, since his patients
could be anything from white to black or anything in between, and often more
than one color. Because no two were alike, it would be futile to ever try to
do any sort of study into whether dragons of certain colors were more or less
likely to develop particular problems.
Well, all this could wait, he decided, as he went back to reading his
notes on K'vrey's dragon Nhorit. Nhorit's symptoms would be easy enough to
explain away as a simple cold or even a mild case of flu - in a human.
Trouble was, dragons didn't develop ailments like that as a rule, and
Nhorit's symptoms might be a sign of something more serious. He hadn't
wanted K'vrey to worry excessively, and so hadn't communicated these thoughts
to him. The pill he had given Nhorit yesterday should help to ameliorate the
symptoms, and with luck their root cause wasn't something that would lead to
chronic problems. He'd have to check back with K'vrey today, he decided. He
could have checked with Nhorit himself, but it was still early and he didn't
want to wake the dragon up.
He picked up another sheet of parchment from yesterday. "Name: Dargen,"
he read, and then looked over the unusually shaky handwriting that filled the
page. It was hard not to have a shaky hand, he reflected, when one has been
struck by what appeared to be nothing less than a minor lightning bolt. Now
*this* one was an interesting case - the hatchling was in perfect health, as
far as he could tell, except for those odd bumps under his jaw. He'd at
first feared that they were some sort of growth that would spread, deforming
both hide and bones, unless removed - until he had discovered the hard way
what their true function was.
He'd need to do a more detailed examination of Dargen, of course, to
make sure that his unusual characteristic wouldn't result in any
unanticipated problems. However, he hadn't been in any real condition to do
so yesterday, after having the wits shocked out of him. Next time, he'd make
sure he had a pair of heavy gloves handy so he wouldn't actually have to
touch the dragon.
He was just running over a list of things he'd need to look for when he
heard the unmistakable sound of dragonwings outside the entrance. He got up
and hurried for the entrance, leaping aside just in time to avoid being
bowled over as a dragon he hadn't seen before hurried in. The dragon was
carrying something in an improvised sling.
*Hello there!* he called out. *What's the hurry?*
The dragon halted, glancing his way as she laid down her burden. [Are
you the healer?] she asked in return.
*Yes, I'm Dalmar,* he replied.
[I am Wylith, and I bring a hatchling who has hurt himself in his
attempt to get to his rider. Can you help him?]
Dalmar reached down and gently moved aside the enfolding blanket, to see
the very dragon he had just been thinking of. *Dargen!* he thought
anxiously, seeing the mostly-dried blood that ran down the hatchling's face,
and the very visible cut that it flowed from. He got no answer, but saw with
relief that Dargen was still breathing.
*Thank you for bringing him!* he told Wylith, and the dragon nodded in
response.
[Will he be all right?] she asked, just as a a young women hurried in
through the doorway.
"Will he be all right?" she asked.
"Yes, I think he will," said Dalmar. "I'm Dalmar, by the way. You're
Wylith's rider?"
She nodded. "Darla," she said.
"Well, thanks to both of you for bringing this little one over," he
said. He quickly queried Darla about what she knew of the hatchling's
injuries while he performed his own examination. The worst injuries were
fairly obvious, a dislocated wing and a bad bruise on his head with a cut at
its center that would need a couple of stitches to heal properly.
"Could you give me a hand with the wing?" he asked Darla. A dragon's
wing, even that of a hatchling, was no small affair, and took two people to
manage properly. Together they stretched the wing out - it was lucky that
Dargen wasn't awake, or this would have hurt - and then, while Darla held the
end of the wing steady, Dalmar knelt at the wingshoulder and with a sudden
exertion popped the dislocated limb back into its socket. Dargen gave a
small shudder as he did this, but otherwise did not seem to react.
"Thanks," Dalmar told Darla, then gave a telepathic thanks to Wylith for
carrying Dargen to the clinic. "I also work on big dragons, so feel free to
bring yours by anytime she's not feeling up to snuff."
(Jeanette, feel free to add! :)
* * * * * * * *
(Day 5, predawn)
/snip from Andre's post/
Reaching the dragon clinic, Soucivi walked inside and began looking for
whoever was in charge at the moment, since he doubted Dalmar would be
there yet.
/end snip/
Dalmar was dozing in a chair when he heard the sound of someone
entering. He jerked awake, and silently cursed himself for falling asleep.
He'd gotten Dargen settled just fine after treating his injuries, but he'd
then had to rush out to help with the rescue of the trapped riders. That
accomplished, he'd meant to go over to the hatchling barracks and check on
the ones that had gotten in the way of Dargen's outburst.
"I didn't expect to find you here," Soucivi said.
"I probably shouldn't be," Dalmar said guiltily. "I should be making my
rounds." He gave the young rider a wry smile. "I guess you've come to see
your dragon, eh?"
At Soucivi's nod, he continued. "He's ok now. Other than the
dislocated wing, all his injuries are superficial. I did have to put a
couple of stitches in that cut on his head. You really need to talk to him
about using his head as a battering ram - concussions aren't an easy thing to
treat in a dragon."
"I can imagine," Soucivi said absently, reaching down to stroke the area
adjacent to the cut on the sleeping dragon's head.
"I do need to go and check on other hatchlings," said Dalmar. "As far
as I know, none was seriously hurt, but some of them might need some burn
salve. I knew your dragon could shock anyone who touched those nodes on his
chin, but did you know he could emit lightning bolts from them too? That's
something you *definitely* need to tell Eth'n about! Could be a very
effective weapon - if he can learn to control it."
(Andre - feel free to add!)
* * * * * * * *
Morning
Hatchling barracks
It was a rather blearly-eyed Dalmar who finally made his way to the
hatchling barracks sometime later. The place was, he noted, still in
something of a shambles from Dargen's earlier escapades. Not as bad as the
dragon clinic had been after Rover's, of course, and he figured that Eth'n
should be able to have the trainees get things fixed and cleaned up by
lunchtime.
Since nobody seemed to be taking any notice of him, he cleared his
throat. "I'm, ah, looking for Foxglove?" he said, looking around him. "I'm
the healer..."
He felt a tap on his shoulder, and turned around to see a girl glaring
at him. "About time!" she said. "It would have been better if you'd have
been here in time to keep that overgrown lizard from crunching my ribs by
sitting on me, but better late than never! I hope you've got something
*really* good for bruises!"
Dalmar cleared his throat again in embarrassment. "Well, actually, I'm
not *that kind of a healer...."
Fox looked suspiciously at him. "Well, if you're one of *those* kinds of
healers," she said, tapping her head for emphasis, "then you don't need to be
looking at me...go have a look at that insufferable Soucivi, or that even
more insufferable dragon of his who thinks he's a walking thunderstorm, or
that still *more* insufferable dragon who seems to think I'm a chair for her
to sit on...!"
Dalmar held up his hands to try and calm her. "Wait, wait...I'm not
*that* kind of a healer either! I'm Telnor's dragonhealer! You're
Katliana's rider, right? I heard she got, um, a bit of a jolt earlier from
Dargen..."
"A *bit* of a jolt??" Fox demanded. "Listen, if you'd been on the
receiving end...."
"I HAVE been on the receiving end," Dalmar said ruefully. "In case you
didn't notice, my hair is *still* sticking up from when I examined Dargen
yesterday. But that's beside the point, I came to have a look at your
dragon, just to give her a general checkover to see that she's ok."
"Oh...well, that's different," Fox allowed.
Dalmar let out a sigh of relief. "So, would you rather we did it here,
or over at the clinic?"
(Tag Joey!)
NRPG: Okay, not much here to advance things, but after this long a silence, I
figured I'd better get something out! :)